~ Author

Beware of Alligators and Snakes

Constantly, I am inspired by things around me. I have made it a point to begin carrying my camera with me everywhere I go so that I can capture some of the infinite inspiration in the world and keep it with me. The picture posted with this blog is one that I took close to my home and I am always reminded of a conversation about it that went as follows:

Friend: We should go and take a walk over there.

Me: I’m not going over there, there are alligators and snakes.

Friend: There are no alligators or snakes over there, I have never seen any.

Me: If there weren’t any, there wouldn’t be a sign.

I pass this warning every day and every time I see it, I get goose-flesh and if I were to write a story inspired by it, it would begin like this…

My little brother Bo didn’t want to go. My friend Trish and I knew we shouldn’t march the foreboding mile west of my family’s farm on that dreary day when the sky spit sporadic spurts of dirty rain water down on us when it felt moved to. It took us many months to gain the courage to seek out the abandoned land where we had been told by my crazy uncle Larry that someone may have left behind an alligator pond. Trish and I teased Bo the entire way, goading him with names like “Fraidy Cat”. When we finally arrived we were chilled by the sign that warned us and almost could not believe that this place even existed, but we were just as quickly unimpressed by the calm and serene seeming water.

“There’s nothing in there!” Trish whined as she picked up a large stone and launched it into the water.

Now that I sit here in the rush of people moving around me, my mother screaming hysterically, Trish bawling in the corner with Bo’s blood covering every inch of my dress I wish we would have listened when he told us, “Just because you don’t see them, doesn’t mean they aren’t really there.”